Elizabeth's accession to the throne

Elizabeth's Accession Day, November 17, 1558, was celebrated
triumphantly by Protestants, who looked to the new Queen as
the embodiment of all their revolutionary hopes*. She
was seen as a symbol of hope for a more liberal era.

Contrary to Protestant expectations, however, Elizabeth's
first Parliament (1559) brought compromise instead of radical
reform; avoiding the extremism of the two former regimes, the
new Queen looked back to her father's reign as a role model
for her government. But Elizabeth had a shrewder
understanding* of the art of
governing than Henry VIII and would not subjugate the good of
the realm to personal or dynastic interests; she took
a middle
path* in both politics and
religion. Of course, it was
not easy to keep a balance between extremes, and sometimes
her private life was very different from what she allowed the public to
see.

Good luck?

In many ways, Elizabeth's easy succession to the throne at a
time of volatile religious tensions was a matter of luck. The
threat of principal Catholic leaders was neutralized without
effort thanks to the early death of the principal Catholic
cleric, Cardinal Pole, and Lord Chancellor Heath's unswerving
loyalty to the Tudors. London citizens and members of the
Commons were predominantly Protestant, and there was no other
strong claimant to the throne--Mary Stuart
held the best claim, but her marriage to the French king made
such a choice distasteful even to many Catholics (they had
just escaped the foreign yoke of Spain and were not eager for
another). The danger of faction also made it tactful for the
new Queen to remain single, since marriage would
have provided a rival focus for political action. All hopes
were thus concentrated in Elizabeth.

Footnotes

Beginnings of a cult

The cult of Elizabeth was already
developing in the Accession Day sermons of Puritan ministers,
who stressed biblical parallels with the theme of liberation:
Elizabeth was compared to Deborah, the Judge of Israel whose
guidance enabled Barak to liberate their people from tyranny
(Judges 4,5).

Elizabeth's coronation prayer

This prayer was composed by Elizabeth and spoken on her
behalf during ceremonies following her coronation:

O LORD ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, I give Thee most
hearty thanks that Thou hast been so merciful to me as to
spare me to behold this joyful day. And I acknowledge that
Thou hast dealt as wonderfully and mercifully with me as
Thou didst with Thy true and faithful servant Daniel, Thy
prophet, whom Thou delivered'st out of the den from the
cruelty of the greedy and raging lions. Even so was I
overwhelmed and by Thee delivered. To Thee, therefore, only
be thanks, and praise, forever. Amen.
(From Rice, The Public Speaking of Queen
Elizabeth.)

A pragmatic Queen

Elizabeth held to a middle path (via
media) as far as possible, but she
was only tolerant when it was good policy to be so; like a
true pupil of Machiavelli, she maintained
a popular image while having "a flexible disposition, varying
as fortune and circumstances dictate."

Elizabeth was probably familiar with Machiavelli's ideas on
public image:

[A prince] should appear to be compassionate, faithful to
his word, kind, guileless, and devout.
(Machiavelli, The Prince).

A Queen of two faces

As Elizabeth's use of propaganda suggests, she was a queen
with two faces: a benevolent public face and a much less
tolerant private face. In her public life Elizabeth took
great pains to improve her appearance, wearing cosmetics and
holding a perfumed silk handkerchief in her mouth before she
received visitors; however, in her private life she could be
ruthless, as became apparent when the Earl of Essex burst
into Elizabeth's dressing room with what he thought to be
important news. While this earned Essex the distinction of
being the only one of her close advisors to see her without
cosmetics, Elizabeth was greatly offended by the intrusion.
This incident was a contributing factor in Essex's fall from
favor, which eventually lead him to promote the
Essex
rebellion.

An anniversary

The measure of Elizabeth's success as a ruler may be gauged
in part by the duration of her popularity even long after her
reign; the date of her accession became an annual holy day,
the birthday of the Anglican Church, and continued to be
celebrated with festivities and pealing church bells even
into the 18th century (when the Enlightenment and time's
moderating effect lessened religious and patriotic fervor).